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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Red Velvet Cupcakes

The first of October I went on a vacation with my mom and both of my kids while Brian went hunting. Literally one hour after getting out of the car to start our vacation I dropped our trusty point & shoot camera in the sand in the play area of an apple cider mill. Literally. One. Hour. The first day of our 5 day vacation. Thankfully my mom had a camera with her, so the trip didn’t go completely undocumented, however the last 2 months of our lives have been camera-less. It’s been rough, I tell you. Rough! (This is where tiny violins start playing sad, sad songs for me. La la laaa)

What does this have to do with Red Velvet Cupcakes? Absolutely nothing! Except as a way to show you what arrived in my house last week. My third child, as I earnestly jokingly call it:

Isn’t she pretty? (She’d be even prettier if I had any blazing idea how to work her. But we can’t have everything, can we?) So once I get over what I like to call the Camera-stupids posting will commence again! You have no idea how much I’ve missed this. Fear not, I have been cooking and baking up a storm :)

Now… on to these cupcakes? I’d only had Red Velvet Cake once before and it was good. However, it didn’t really strike the love in me that I’d expected. I’d heard so many raves for Red Velvet, so many people saying that it’s their favorite cake. I just didn’t see it. Until now, that is. Daaaang, people. I get what you’re saying! Now, I’m not sure it’ll ever take the place of cheesecake in my heart as my favorite dessert, but it was definitely towards the top of my Dang But That’s a Good Cupcake list. And that is a very, very long list. Top it with cream cheese frosting and oh be still my heart! And how pretty are they for the Christmas season!

Directions:To make the cakePreheat the oven to 350. Line cupcake pans with 18 paper liners.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk together to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the eggs, oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar until well-mixed.

With the mixer on low speed slowly beat in the flour mixture until evenly incorporated.

Scoop the batter evenly between the cupcake liners. Bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frostingIn the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the butter, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until fluffy. Pipe or spread frosting onto cupcakes as desired.

6 comments:

I've never had understood the red velvet craze either, surely I need to bake these to try and rectify that. Congrats on the "new addition" to your family, I'm looking forward to seeing what you are cooking next.

Oooh, I love cream cheese frosting. I don't love the idea of red food coloring in my cake, but I'm always tempted when I see how lovely red velvet cakes are. Do you think I could make them without the coloring? Would I need to substitute something to make up for the liquid volume or does most of that actually cook away???

I've read about using a smidge of beet juice instead of food coloring. I planned on trying it when I was making these but was in a bit of a time crunch. I'd like to give it a whirl sometime soon. You could probably just add a tablespoon or two of water or milk to the batter if the batter was too dry. Otherwise, I'd say just leave out the coloring all-together! I'll let you know if I successfully color using beet juice